Monday, July 14, 2014

Let me tell you, it sounds so easy to sit down and write a book. However, over the last few months I learned that there is nothing easy about it. Since I am writing a memoir going all the way back to where I was born, it is painful and also exciting. This memoir is not just a memoir; it is also a cook book. I am incorporating all the blogs I have written over the last 2 years. Finding the right way how to bridge it, from blogs into a manuscript has been difficult. Sometimes it gets me so frustrated that I want to chuck the whole project, ha, ha. My kids keep saying. “Just write Mom.” Well Mom is writing and is reluctant to show the manuscript to anyone except my editor and, as of now she wants the whole manuscript not just parts of it, yikes! Patience is the major ingredient right now.

Thinking of writing this blog will keep me moving forward with this book. It is not the first time I attempted to publish a book. My first attempt was in New York City while living in Connecticut. The Galley was done and ready to go to the Publisher through my then agent. By the way, this was a teaching cookbook, titled: How to be a Gourmet without a Cadillac Kitchen.

It was not to be. Our home went up in flames and the manuscript pages which were in single plastic sheets, melted together. It was not readable and this was my only copy; we did not have computers at the time (late 70th) I abandoned the whole project. At the time I was working at a demanding job, raising 7 children as a widow and I just could not see myself starting that book again. I had/have a lot of the handwritten notes, which are black from the fire but still readable.

My second attempt was when I took on the Dream Inn Hotel in Santa Cruz, California only to have my PC burn out. Yikes, you would think I have had enough bad Karma with writing that I would give up, ha, ha. They say three times is a charm so everyone who follows my blogs send good vibes that I will get this book down and published by the end of 2015.

While contemplating all this, I am usually in the kitchen while cooking or creating a new recipe. I did just that. My friend Josie gave me a lot of veggies so here is what I did with those:

Curried Carrot Vegetable Soup:

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

1 tablespoon of curry powder or to taste

2 lbs carrots, peeled and cut into 222 inch pieces

½ lb green beans, cut the ends and remove string if need to be

6 stalks of baby broccoli

1 cup celery cut into 2 inch pieces

1 yellow pepper, seeded and cut into 2 inch pieces

1 onion, chopped

4 to 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Heat olive oil in a 4 quart pot add the curry powder and stir for about one minute, add the onion and sauté on medium until soft, do not brown, add all the vegetables and sauté until covered with the curry. Add the stock, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and coo for about 45 minutes to one hour. Remove from heat and let it cool.

In a food processor or blender puree the vegetables adding the stock until the consistency is to your liking.

Serve with chopped eggs or grated cheese and chopped parsley.

Makes about 8 to 10 servings.

NOTE: I like to use about a half cup of half and half when I puree the soup.

About Me

I inherited the dining bug from my father, who ran successful dinner clubs in Germany, my native country. My forty plus years of experience in the food service industry include experience as chef, restaurant and private club general manager, and director of food & beverage for hotels. My first major success as a food service professional came with the establishment and the subsequent phenomenal popularity of Annie’s Firehouse Soup Kitchen Restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut.
Other establishments I have worked with include The Graduate Club, in New Haven, Connecticut; the Four Seasons Hotel, Le Premier Restaurant, & Radisson Plaza Hotel, Newport Beach, Dream Inn Hotel, Santa Cruz, Los Gatos Lodge, Los Gatos, Felix & Louis, Healdsburg, all in California; Village Latch Inn, South Hampton, New York; and the Radisson Hotel in Osprey, Florida.
Corporate clients include Conde Nast, Yale University, and Irvine Ranch Farmer’s Market among many others.
Television credits include cooking demonstrations in New Haven, Connecticut and New York City. I have also been featured in the food section of many papers.